Hm!
At this point I'm a very "from the heart" cook, meaning I don't use recipes often and I rarely measure things. This recipe might be a little vague, but because I cook from the heart it means you don't -need- to be super specific. I'll try my best to include things to avoid that might cause this dish to turn out wrong/things to look out for if you the reader aren't too confident in the kitchen.

Comfort food is a fun subjective category, probably my own personal one is what I call "Bullshit poutine." If I want fast food, usually I make this instead. You need:

-An oven
-A way to steam veggies
-Some potatoes, I like redskin but anything works
-cooking oil
-Salt and other spices you enjoy
-cheese of choice (I like sharp cheddar)
-eggs
-Any other thing you might wanna put on top. Leftover meat, chili, stuff like that. I usually do chopped spinach, raw onions, maybe bacon if I'm feelin frisky.

To make it, wash and cut your potatoes. Peel if you want to, I leave the skins on myself. Shape and size of the cut don't matter as long as its relatively uniform. I go for cubes, about 2in x 2in.

Set your oven to Broil on High setting

Prepare your steamer. I just do stove-top since we aren't going for fully-cooked, so using a pressure cooker or electric steamer/rice cooker might be a little too intense. Steam potatoes until you can easily puncture with a fork, but not so much that you can go through the cube with little resistance. It should still be somewhat stiff in the middle. Using a steamer basket on the stove, this only takes 3-5 minutes. The potatoes will start to "sweat" and be shiny from the starches comin out.

Once parcooked, transfer potatoes into a bowl and toss with oil (amount varies based on how many potatoes you're cookin) with salt, garlic, and any other spices to taste. Usually I just use salt, pepper and garlic.

Spread evenly and flat on a baking sheet. Don't pile the taters on top of each other, they won't cook well. Put in the oven on the top rack. Keep an eye on them and check every few minutes. Ovens vary a lot, and broiling happens FAST. As they start to crisp on one side, turn the potatoes over with a spatula and rotate the pan. Do this as many times as you like until a sufficient percentage of the potatoes are crisped to your liking.

For the cheese, you can do this a couple ways. The easiest/lowest effort way is to just throw a handful of whatever sliced or shredded cheese right on top of the potatoes and put it back in the broiler for 2 minutes or so. Again, broiling happens FAST so keep a close eye/set a timer!!

The less easy way is to heat up a small pan, throw in a bit of heavy cream (it HAS to be high fat dairy or a high-fat dairy substitute like Silk Heavy Cream Alternative which is what I use. Whole milk, 2%, skim, and non dairy milk will NOT work. Whole milk kinda does but the texture will be grainy, do not recommend.) Anyway heat up the pan until it sizzles when you flick a little water into it. Have the cheese you want to use and a whisk or fork on hand as well. Add a few tbsp of cream to the pan (depends on how much sauce you want to make) and add in the cheese. Lower the heat to medium/low-ish and whisk in the cheese. If its too thin, add more cheese. If its too thick and starts looking oily on the edges, turn the heat down and add more cream, a little at a time, until you have the sauce of your dreams.

The eggs can be made however you like them! My favorite is poached. I have a saucepan that holds about 3 cups of liquid. For this pan, I boil about 2.5 cups of water and 1/4 cup of white vinegar. Once at a rolling boil, have a whisk and egg on hand. Crack the egg gently around the circumference so it can be opened shortly. With cracked, unopened egg in hand, whisk the boiling water/vinegar to a nice little whirlpool. As the intensity dies down but the water is still circulating, crack the egg right into the center. The vinegar and lightly swirling waters will keep the egg whites in a mostly-contained round-ish shape. Cook for a couple minutes depending on your preference. I could eat an egg fucking raw so I cook mine about 2.5-3 minutes so its still fairly runny inside.

You also don't have to put an egg on this, the toppings are up to you! I like chopped, fresh spinach, white onions, pickled jalapenos or hot sauce, and ketchup. If I'm feelin fancy I'll put an aoli on top too, but I don't often feel like doing the dishes that result from home-made aoili.

I also thought about chef-skills recipes, but honestly after cooking for people often I've come to understand that the technical skill or complexity of a dish is not as impressive as making something simple that tastes good. Knowing how to make a variety of things and also how to jazz them up with fun flavors and textures can make anything seem fancier than it is. Like, I made a savory cheddar waffle, tobasco-maple breaded chicken, candied jalapenos and smoked gouda bechamel sauce for breakfast last week. I always joke "That'll be $23" when serving breakfast to my partner, because I know how much a restaurant would charge for these "hip foods" that I just make to use up odds and ends. Honestly, its baking that really shows off the skills and specificity of cooking, but making really classy deserts takes so much time and so many specific tools that I just don't do it much now that I don't have daily access to a commercial kitchen. I will still make home made custard for bread puddings, and maybe the odd cheesecake here n' there. Pate au choux too, is also a really adaptable pastry, I like to make a sugar glaze from water boiled with lavender in it (but only a touch! Its a very bitter flavor if overdone) along with an orange zest creme for a fancy-pants desert if I feel like showing off lol

Dang that bullshit poutine sounds good! This is super thorough, thank you! I guess I was thinking "dish" instead of "recipe" when I asked, but I'll absolutely steal this one. Also, I appreciate another gooey egg lover. I've been called gross by diner waitstaff for ordering over easy and not actually meaning over medium.